Silt fencing is used to prevent erosion or soil run-off. During the construction process, soil must be disturbed, thereby creating unfavorable environmental situations, such as a mud and water mixture entering creeks, streams and lakes.
Current silt fencing installation is not effective in holding power, and is also cumbersome to handle. The speed, with which the silt screen fencing can be installed, also provides excellent characteristics in reducing these situations. Speed is difficult to achieve.
With a silt fence fabric, a construction project may minimize the inherent erosion, during the life of the project. It is also critical, that this fence be positioned efficiently, while at the same time minimizing the resulting erosion caused by the construction process necessary to set up the fence. The solution to the erosion problem at a construction site should not be complicated by the setting up of the erosion fence to minimize the erosion at the construction site.
Two current installation methods for installing silt fence fabrics are used today. Both have substantial problems with installation and erosion. Both also require substantial manpower and larger equipment. Those factors greatly increase the cost of installation.
One installation method requires trenching a line, followed by laying the bottom edge of the silt fence within the trench, and then backfilling dirt or soil into the trench and over the fencing material. The problems created by using this method result from the requirement that the soil has to be disturbed in order to install the fencing. This soil disturbance reduces the holding power of the fence and allows for additional loose soil conditions. This in turn can become a water and mud mixture during washout or blowout condition, which defeats the purpose for the fence.
The second method, known as the cutting wheel static design, encounters several installation problems in rocky or hard soil. Those problems necessitate the use of larger equipment also, which is less maneuverable. It also opens up the possibility for bending or dulling of the cutter wheel, and of cutting the fencing material itself, while it is being forced into the ground with the second wheel.
Yet, the setting up of the erosion silt screen fencing cannot greatly increase the time of construction or interfere with the efficiently of the construction. It is highly desirable to accomplish the construction process in a cost efficient and effective manner with minimal erosion problems and maximize the advantages of both situations.